Usual fast paced, thrilling read. So descriptive and well judged, I feel I'm getting to know the characters and feel empathy even for the most tortured ones.

Joe Country
Mick Herron

<b>W O W ! 5 Stars! </b> Mick Herron reaches the top tier!

<B>Joe Country</b> <u>is by far his best-ever spy noir</u>. Fabulous!

Thank you again, NetGalley, for this wonderful series.

Truly great noir, and terrific wry humour. Whereas Herron's earlier books oozed bravado, this one exudes confidence. Herron is fully in control, and the result is marvellous.

<i> As usual with my reviews, please first read the publisher’s blurb/summary of the book. Thank you.</i>

<a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/europe/united-kingdom/england/london/articles/londons-coolest-espionage-locations/" target="blank">London's Most Famous Spy Locations (The Telegraph)</a>


48%
Excellent so far. Great chats between the players, especially the private one between Catherine and Lamb. Scary one between Taverner and Judd.

River's father, as we learned in the previous book, is really a terribly nasty piece of work. Some nasty people only get nastier with age, as a kind of desperation to make it work.

55%
I don't remember Shirley being such a total arse in previous books. Whatever. She's even worse here.

Much of the book takes place in Wales during a snowstorm
<img src="https://www.southwalesargus.co.uk/resources/images/9510023.jpg">
<a href="https://www.southwalesargus.co.uk/resources/images/9510023.jpg" target="blank">Full size image here</a>

60%
The arrogance, carelessness and inhumanity of those in charge of the Park keep compounding, ruining the lives of the innocent just to escape from responsibility for their ineptitude. Sickening.

76%
Fascinating. Bad guy Lars dealing out some justice to a random gobshite along his path. Redemptive? No, he still heads off to kill the innocent.

78%
Even though the story has split into eight points of view, Herron manages to keep them all straight and clear and tense. Great stuff !

85%
<B>Terrific multiple climaxes, terrible losses and a very satisfying resolution. Extraordinary noir, poignant, complex and not at all predictable. </b>

<b>Some outstanding quotes:</b>

Herron feels the city in winter:
<i>Snow was forecast, and the pavements were hard as iron.You felt it in each step, the bone-cold stones hammering through your frame, because this was what London did, when the weather reminded the city it was temporary: it hunched down tight.</i>

<img src="https://www.theguardian.pe.ca/media/photologue/photos/cache/storm_large.JPG">

River considers his dying grandfather:
<i>The bed the O.B. would never leave was a clinical, robust device, with upright panels to prevent him from rolling off, and various machines monitoring his progress. On one, his pulse echoed, a signal tapped out from a wavering source. A last border crossing, thought River. His grandfather was entering joe country.</i>

Herron does not hide his political vitriol:
<i>It turned out that in the governance of a nation’s security, many absurd situations had to be worked around: a toxic clown in the Foreign Office [Boris Johnson], a state visit by a narcissistic bed-wetter [Trump], the tendency of the electorate to jump off' the occasional cliff [Brexit].</i>

A bit of noir:
<i>And now the building [Slough House] subsides, the effect of shadows cast by a passing bus. Memories stir, the residue of long brooding-the stains people leave on the spaces they’ve occupied-but these will be gone by morning, leaving in their place the usual vacancies, into which new sorrows and frustrations will be poured.</i>

Lech contemplates his parents' journey from Poland after WW-2
<i>...he couldn’t help wondering how it had felt: refugees turning up from concentration camps, from a broken Europe, to find this bleak estate; its squat huts their new homes.There’d been watch towers and barbed wire fences. It can’t have looked like freedom. But freedom was measured, he supposed, by what you were leaving behind.</i>

The last of the O.B. [old bastard]:
<i>For the last year of his life, his grandfather’s conversations had had no anchor, and whether he’d been talking to Rose, who was absent, or River, who was not, made no difference; he would drift with the prevailing current, his conversation spinning into eddies or battering invisible rocks. All his life, River had heard tales from the old man’s past, the failures, the victories, the stalemates, and he had learned to read between the lines enough to tell which was which. But no longer. The scraps he heard now were remnants from a shot memory; tattered flags blown by conflicting winds.You’d need a map to know which side the old man had been on. Which might have been the last secret he needed to impart to his grandson; that in the end, all lines blurred. That no day had firm borders.</i>

River is repeatedly abused by memories of the disdain of his mother, and the outright cruelty of his father:
<i>River hadn’t lived with his mother since he was seven, when she’d left him at her parents’ door, and his fading memories of the life they’d shared were scrappy and unfulhlled. Until lately, when he’d thought about those years, the context had been one of bad parenting, but now he thought about how unhappy she must have been, how desperate. He didn’t think she’d survive another taste of that. He was pretty certain he wouldn’t survive hearing about it.</i>

Taverner trying to rid herself of her sins at Slough House, and the brilliant slob Lamb thwarting her at every turn:
<i>River would suggest they get a room, provided the room was soundproofed, locked, and had an alligator in it.</i>

Reminds us of Boris Johnson's utter, shameful failure as Foreign Secretary, set up by Theresa May two years ago:
<i>If you want your enemy to fail, give him something important to do. This stratagem-known for obscure historical reasons as ‘The Boris’</i>

A bit of the love-hate of alcoholism:
<i>[Catherine] left the Tube a stop early, called at the Wine Citadel, and bought a Barolo. An understated label of which she approved. A good wine spoke for itself. It went into a plastic bag, and should have been an anonymous weight in her hand, but somehow wasn’t. There was something about a full bottle, the way it responded to gravity, that couldn’t be mistaken for anything else. It was like carrying a big brass key, which would open the biggest door ever heard of.</i>

Something's wrong with Lamb, even more than usual:
<i>Catherine: ‘Chest infection! You’re sure? It sounds like your whole body’s in revolt.’
Lamb: ‘Antibiotics’ll clear it up.’
C: ‘They tend not to work with drink taken.’
L: ‘They’re drugs, they’re not fucking Irishmen.’</i>

Super-gnurd, Roddy Ho:
<i>He’d been listening to the classics lately-Guns n’ Roses; Deep Purple-an indication of growing maturity. There was a specially wistful drum solo on "Live in Japan". That shit had escaped him when he was younger.</i>

Betrayal:
<i>... "enough,’ she said, ‘that he could work it out and sell the name?’
‘He didn’t have to.’ Lamb’s words were hard as bullets. ‘He only had to sell a single syllable.’
That made no sense, until it did. What single syllable could make a difference? Only one Catherine could think of. <b>She.</b></i>

Lamb considers the O.B.
<i>The last time she’d seen David Cartwright he’d been a scared old man, nervy of shadows. Perhaps it was true what they said about age: that in its darker corners lurk the monsters of our own making.</i>

Catherine's memories of the terrible end for her last boss, Charles Partner:
<i>Catherine closed her eyes and saw it again: Partner’s body in the bathtub; the contents of his head a red mess on the porcelain. A pulpy mixture, like trodden grapes. Some memories seared themselves on your mind, like a shadow on a wall after a nuclear flash.</i>

Louisa considers how far the service has fallen since the greats of the post-war/cold-war era:
<i>Secrecy was the Service’s watchword, but leaking like a sieve was what it did best. When the leaked material was classified the leaker was tracked down and strung up, or so the handbook required,</i>

Emma Flyte with River sees his apartment for the first time:
<i>"Nice as your place is.’
‘My cleaner’s not been well.’
‘Looks like your cleaner got old and died. Possibly of shock when decimal currency came in."</i>

River considers how to catch Frank, his monster of a father, with the limited resources of Slough House:
<i>Given the run of the hub, they’d pinpoint his whereabouts in hours, but with the resources at their disposal River might as well be on Slough House’s roof, using a kitchen roll holder as a telescope.</i>

Idiot Pynne considers the agent he's running in London:
<i>Pynne had never wanted to be a joe, preferring to view the world from a desk, confident that these desks would become bigger, their views more panoramic, as his career skyrocketed. But it couldn’t be denied that moments like this carried excitement; a pleasure that was necessarily furtive, borderline sexual.</i>

River confronts Lamb:
<i>River heard a striking match.
Lamb: ‘Still got your going-away present?’
River: ‘Yes.’
L: ‘Good. Shoot yourself in the head. Then Shirley. Then the mad monk.’
R: ‘Definitely the order I’d choose,’ River said.</i>

The bad guys are armed with Sig Sauers
<img src="https://modernwarriors.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/Sig-Sauer-P320C-BLK-1a.jpg">

Snow in joe country, in Wales:
<i>The fields all around were smooth plains, and the trees against the morning skyline looked like Christmas decorations. Snow, though. Soft and fluffy on the outside, but ruthless as a shark. It was the fucking Disney Corp by other means.</i>

Judd confronts Taverner:
<i>He raised a hand to forestall her response.
‘Don’t bother denying it. We both know the PM’s a tormented creature [Theresa May]. Like one of those soft toys lorry drivers fix to their radiator grilles.That expression she wears, it’s terror at all the oncoming vehicles.’</i>

<img src="https://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2008/06/07/article-0-0183A91800000578-871_468x444.jpg">
<a href="https://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2008/06/07/article-0-0183A91800000578-871_468x444.jpg" target="blank">Full size image here</a>

Will post to Amazon soon

Wow! How does Mick Herron do it? This sixth Jackson Lamb thriller is as brilliant as the previous ones, gripping from the first page to the last. The trouble with reading one is that you just have to know what happens next but don’t want to finish the book too quickly. A cunning plan of switching scenes throughout the narrative leaves the reader in a permanent state of suspense.

Joe Country opens with a startling image and a casual remark about bodies. This means that for most of the rest of the book you’re wondering who was killed and hoping it wasn’t a favourite character. In the second chapter we have the now trademark meander around the decaying ruin that is Slough House. Then the Slow Horses appear, our spooks (fewer now), who have allegedly failed at Park House (HQ) but still manage to foil the bad guys before ‘Lady Di’ (Diana Taverner, now First Desk) and her minions.

This book is achingly topical: Brexit; a woman Prime Minister; Salisbury; a royal personage (unnamed but easily guessed at) in shady company. A new member of the team (if you can call it that), has been sacked for having child pornography on his work computer, a charge he denies but which sticks. Since it’s hard to hack into Park House computers, it seems there’s been foul play. That’s a story line which turns out later to be important. The thriller aspect of the book comes when various slow horses set off to Wales, in terrible snowy conditions, in search of the missing son of a dead colleague. The chase, the battles with the bad guys, have you reading faster and faster.

I’ve said before that what I particularly like about the Jackson Lamb series is that the books are not only exciting but funny. The comments on modern life, the despair over the state of the country, are somehow made amusing. As for Jackson Lamb, he of the gross personal habits, it’s uncanny how he manages to solve problems from his desk, rather than by haring all over the country. He insults and puts down his ‘joes’ all the time but mess with them and he er, doesn’t like it much, shall we say? I find all his remarks funny. As I read a proof copy, I can’t quote from it (Publisher’s Rules, ha ha), but imagine that someone just happened to ask Lamb how on earth he knew a certain fact and he said something like, ‘Let’s suppose I’m a spy.’ You find that funny or not; I certainly do.

I can’t recommend Mick Herron highly enough; this is the best series I’ve read in a long time. I do recommend that if you’re new to Jackson Lamb, you start with the first book, Slow Horses. Many thanks to the publishers and NetGalley for the advance e-book. Joe Country will be out on 20th June.

Another fast moving page turner from Mick Herron. This one features the usual culprits out of the Slough House where they are headed up by the very irreverent Jackson Lamb. Slough House or "Slow Horse" the dumpit site for spooks that have fouled the nest.

River Cartwright's grandfather has died at long last and attending his funeral the American Frank Harkness turns up the disgraced spook on everyones list to be definitely not invited.

The plot moves quickly along where in the depths of snow bound Wales a team is after a young boy who has a secret and its a race as to who gets to him first.
A cracking read exciting and with unexpected twists all along the way.

As with all of the Slough House series, ‘Joe Country’ begins with a dramatic event which prompts a number of questions. Why Wales? Why the fire? What woman? Which boss? And, at the centre of all this, as we learn, where’s the kid?
Joe Country could be the name of a character but, as avid readers of Mick Herron’s ‘slow horses’’ antics will know, a Joe is a spook in the field and the country is wherever he or she operates. In this novel we follow the usual crowd around some of London’s lesser attractions – scuzzy cafés, refuse collection points, snow-slushy streets, Slough House itself – ‘a bad tooth in a failing mouth’ – and on to Wales, a snow globe parody fraught with danger. Those who are familiar with this series know that we cannot assume all will be well by the end of the story, that the bad guys will have been dealt their comeuppance and that the ‘horses’ will have returned safely to their stables. Possibly quite the reverse.
In ‘Joe Country’ Mick Herron enjoys a few jokes at the expense of our Brexit-raddled times. The prime minister is a ‘needs-must choice, though she appeared to be the only person in the country unaware of the fact’ and ‘the Boris’ is a term meaning, ‘Give your enemy something important to do.’ As well as enticing a wry smile, this sort of detail is important in helping the reader to suspend disbelief in Herron’s sometimes preposterous (yet highly entertaining) plots.
Politics aside, throughout this novel, we are reminded that Jackson Lamb, boss of all who reluctantly reside in Slough House, whilst much of the time appearing to be doing nothing more than drinking, farting and delivering vicious one-liners at their expense, is, nonetheless, fiercely protective of his Joes. His huge brain is forever weighing up risks, recognising weaknesses and remembering favours to be called in. Much better to be part of his regime than under the rule of ‘Lady Di’ Taverner, First Desk at Regent’s Park who cares about no one, herself excepted. In this novel, Herron lays a trail (to be continued we presume) which suggests that her grip on power may be a little more tenuous than she supposes.
Herron concludes ‘Joe Country’ in equally satisfying and frustrating measures. Once more, we’re left desperate to know ‘what next’. Extremely well written, funny and serious in equal measures, excellent plotting and brilliant characterisation ensures that this series is one I’ll be following to the, probably bitter, end.
My thanks to NetGalley and John Murray (Publishers) for a copy of this novel in exchange for a fair review.

The latest book in the Jackson Lamb series does not disappoint! Mick has given us another amazing tale of the Slow Horses of Slough House, the current politics of the UK loom large in the background but it is Horses themselves that provide the grip and intrigue that make this series so enjoyable!

Jackson himself is a brilliant character, I see in him the natural end of a James Bond type character burned out by the work and despising those above and below him, yet still fiercely loyal to 'his' Joes'.

Speaking of his Joes - they play true to form, desiring of action yet not always able to help themselves when they get caught up in a house-cleaning operation involving the highest (and lowest) in the land!

In Joe Country we find several ongoing plots come to their conclusions but yet more are trailed and as promised in the blurbs when the Horses go out, not all of them will be returning.

The erstwhile outcasts of MI5, housed in Slough House, a building that would need renovating before it was considered fit to be condemned, true also of its “Boss” Jackson Lamb. For those that have successfully negotiated the previous 5 books and have an empathy and understanding of the characters expectation is high and plausability aside, it does not disappoint. A seemingly last resort cry for help from a mother missing a son connects to Slough House and of we pop, tying in a double agent, mercenaries and ill equipped “Joe’s” in the bleak midwinter of Wales.
Lives are lost, a Royals reputation is saved and Jackson Lamb metaphorically pulls a trigger while back at the Park, Lady Di, First Desk and all round nasty person, pulls another.
Keep going Mick, some of us are addicted!

The thrill of getting a pre-release Jackson Lamb novel caused my reading list to take a back seat whilst I revelled in the opening description of Slough House. This has become a Mick Herron trademark but on this occasion didn’t quite have the inventive step. Anyway, I thought I would pen my own in the hope my favourite author can think of a new catalyst:

The electron, first entering the capital, propelled by the potential force of old, new and dodgy money, where it will be modulated to a techno beat through the silicon maze of high frequency trading machines until thoroughly stripped of money, morals and impetus it follows Kirchoff’s Law of what flows in, like effluent, flows out and thus it enters Slough House. Here electrons enter a light fitting like arthritic lemmings reluctant to take the quantum leap, “You first”, “No, you”, “You first, I insist” . And when finally they become photons, will be inextricably attracted to the event horizon; the black hole which is Jackson Lamb, where light both fails to escape or disinfect.

So I am afraid Joe Country set in sheep country only merited four stars despite some real gems of a put down by Lamb, “You’re too old to be on the rag”, “Don’t tell me you’re hitting the bottle”, and PJ, like the tormented toy tagged to a trucker’s radiator grill resembling the PM’s expression of terror.

I must say as Lamb is the one who distastefully keeps us amused and his troops in order, I do worry about his health. Please don’t write him out Mick.

Another brilliant spy title from Mick Herron. I've read all the others in the Jackson Lamb series and was waiting patiently for this next one, and it doesn't disappoint. More of Lamb's appalling habits, more of the various inhabitants of Slough House's quiet search for something in their lives to give it meaning. The characters are as live as the previous titles, and whilst the action seems a little comic-book in parts, it is still impelling. I page-turned to the end, and now I'm back on the slow wait for the next Slow Horse. Recommended.

Jackson Lamb and his Slow Horses are back for another adventure and this time there are scores to settle with River’s enemy agent dad as well as the usual intrigues with their real enemies at MI5. Rules will be broken and revolting characteristics will be revealed but as always we can rely on the truly disgusting Jackson to do the right thing and save us all, although not necessarily all of his “Joes” in Slough House. I found this one a little more rushed than the previous books in the series but Herron relates his heroes’ exploits with such affection that you can’t help but be drawn in.

Mick Herron is a splendid writer when it comes to his out of luck spies, the dregs of the world of espionage, the bunch of losers that are the slow horses, consigned to Slough House, the repository of the intelligence services ghosts and failures. This is a corker of a series, bulging with black humour and comic wit, Herron skewers with aplomb the joke that is the political establishment, with his barely disguised depictions of certain British politicians and their antics. You know right from the beginning that some of the slow horses are not going to make it out alive. This had me frantically trying to work out who, as I raced through, tense and afraid, for the slow horses have earned a special place in my heart. For those of you that have read the novella, The Drop, you will be aware that there is a new shell shocked slow horse, Lech Wicinski, whose 'crime' is considered to be way beyond the pale by all the others. Goaded by the complex monstrosity that is Jackson Lamb, the head of Slough House, it takes Wicinski only his first meeting with Lamb to realise that his new boss's thought processes would be terra incognita to the psychiatric profession.

It was only a matter of time before the perfidious and ambitious Lady Di Taverner was going to get, by hook or by crook, the position of First Desk at Regent's Park. She has her eyes on eliminating Emma Flyte, with plans of disposing of her into Slough House, it's a positive joy to have Emma tell her what she can do with that idea as she quits. River's grandfather, David Cartwright, is now dead, his funeral at the Spook's Chapel in Hampstead, where River's hated father, Frank Harkness, ex-CIA, now a mercenary, shows his unwanted face. Harkness was behind the death of a slow horse, there are scores to settle, and Lamb is not a man who forgives or forgets such a heinous act committed against one of his own joes. Louisa is still grieving the loss of Min Harper, and his wife, Clare, contacts her over the disappearance of her 17 year old son, Lucas. With the help of Roddy Ho and Emma, Louisa heads to Pembrokeshire in Wales in search of the missing boy. Fearing for Louisa, and becoming aware that Harkness and 3 other European mercenaries are in Wales too, Lamb dispatches a team of slow horses on a dangerous mission into Joe country in the most inclement of snowy and freezing weather.

This is another unforgettable addition to this stellar series which sees the return of the ghastly former home secretary, Peter Judd, up to no good as usual, demanding the attention of Lady Di. Lech cannot let the horror that has befallen him go, and Slough House ends up with even more ghosts to deal with. Lamb's plays his cards close to his chest, engaging in machinations that underline just how much of an error of judgement it would be to write him off, and the perils of underestimating him. I did have worries about his health, he is Herron's genius creation, in all his glorious horror, the undisputed star of this series. I approach every new addition to this series with a great sense of anticipation and joy, it is so wonderfully entertaining and smart with a memorable set of characters, great plotlines, and so hilariously comic amidst the darkness of the rising body count and carnage. If you have yet to acquaint yourself with this series, start at the beginning, you are in for such a treat. Highly recommended. Many thanks to John Murray Press for an ARC.

My thanks to NetGalley and publisher John Murray Press for the ARC.
To start with I have to confess I have not read any of the series leading up to this #6, and I've obviously been missing out! - something to rectify later, because I'm reviewing this book as a standalone.

What does MI5 do with their spooks once they've blotted their copy-books; they send them across London, from their smart offices on Regents Park to a dank hovel of a converted house in the shadow of the Barbican - Slough House. Known as the 'slow horses' this spooky section is headed by Jackson Lamb - he is a rather disgusting character, but would protect his 'Joes' until hell freezes over. The slow horses spend their time on desk-work analysis and writing reports that Park will never read.
Until.....Frank Harkness is spotted and pursued by his son River (a slow horse) at his grandfather's funeral. Obviously a person of great interest to Slough House, they investigate his arrival into this Country, only to find he arrived with 3 other persons of interest. This old adversary is here with a team of mercenaries and headed for Wales.
Meanwhile, Louisa who was in a relationship with 'Min' before he got killed, is contacted by Min's ex-wife to see if she can trace her eldest son. Louisa decides she will help, takes leave, and with the help of a recently-resigned spook from Park, her direction of travel is also to Wales.
It's a cold and snowy winter - Wales is blanketed. The story-lines come together. The other slow horses can't let Louisa fight the battle on her own. River has a score to settle with his father. Jackson Lamb is co-ordinating the operation.

This really is an exciting and complex read. Yes, I was rather thrown in at the deep end not having read previous books in the series, but nevertheless I thoroughly enjoyed the witty dialogue. Jackson Lamb has an answer for everything, the relationships within the team give humour, sadness, bravery and bravado.

Several twists take the ground from beneath your feet, not all of the team return, and I found the ending really thoughtful and poignant.

Well worth reading - must go back to the beginning now, though.

Without doubt, this is currently my favourite series at the moment. Mick Herron has created an intelligent, darkly humorous, world of spooks and outsiders, which are enriched, and linked to, the novellas, which he ties into this book. This is very much part of a series though, so do not start with this book and imagine you can jump right in, or you will be lost. Instead, head back to, “Slow Horses,” and I envy you discovering Herron’s world from the start.

There is a new Slow Horse in this book, Alex Wicinski, who begins life at Slough House like so many before him – confused, bewildered, and in denial. This will all be sorted, he will soon be back at the Park and his life will soon be back on track. Those who have already been side-lined to the world of the Slow Horses avoid him, as though his despair is contagious. They know the score and are aware the road from the Park to Slough House, is one way.

However, the mindless, numbing tasks that the group are usually involved in, are soon forgotten, as, some of the Slow Horses, find themselves, once again in Joe Country. Louisa is asked to help Min Harper’s wife and, out of guilt, and a sense of responsibility, finds herself on a mission that should be fairly simple and soon isn’t. Meanwhile, River is enraged when his long missing father appears back in the picture and, as he so often does, reacts without thinking things through.

From Mick Herron’s sly portraits of current politicians, to his recognition of the casual cruelty still deemed acceptable by those with money and power, through to his wonderful recognitions of the weaknesses and strengths of the country (including London grinding to a halt after a few snowflakes) and we are back in his world. Beneath the humour there is darkness, and danger, and death. Fans will be smitten, concerned, and emotionally wrung out by the end of this book. As it should be, we long to read more. I (gratefully) received a copy of this book from the publishers, via NetGalley, for review.

Joe Country is the sixth in Mick Herron’s Slough House series and it’s well up to standard – meaning that it’s terrific.

A note for new readers: do not start here. You need to read the previous books to have any real idea of what is going on in Joe Country. (Be assured that reading them will be an unalleviated pleasure.) For those of us who know and love the series, this is an excellent instalment. The plot involves several of the Slow Horses ending up on a potentially deadly chase in snowbound Wales, more sneaky and convoluted chicanery by Diana Taverner, the return of Frank Harkness among other threads, while the characters we know (and sort-of love) develop – or at least continue to be their well-drawn, entertaining selves. Meanwhile, Jackson Lamb continues to be repellently wonderful and often laugh-out-loud funny. He really is one of the great creations of 21st-Century fiction and remains on excellent form here.

Herron manages to combine humour with a genuinely exciting story from which, as always, we really don’t know which characters will emerge alive. He writes and structures it extremely well and I was hooked pretty well from page 1. In short, this is a really good Slough House book; probably no more really need be said. Very warmly recommended.

(My thanks to John Murray for an ARC via NetGalley.)

Huge fan of Mick Herron and this latest May be the best so far. How he manages to blend humour and the world’s most disgusting anti-hero with true suspense and a long played out yet plausible action sequence I don’t know. But he does. Brilliant, couldn’t put it down.

I loved this book. Having never read any of the earlier books in the series, I found this quite baffling at first, but was quickly drawn into the world of Slough House. The characters are well-drawn, the dialogue witty and believable, and the storyline absolutely compelling. I am now off to read the other thrillers in the series, and would heartily recommend you to do the same!

Less rollicking that his previous titles, Mick Herron's Joe Country is a calmer affair. Having said that, the body count remains high. So do the troubled Slow Horses of Slough House. I suggest you read previous titles in order to fully understand the plot and characters. Joe Country does sit that well as a stand-alone book in the series. There are several references to previous plot point and why characters behave how they do. Overall, I enjoyed Joe Country and its topical references within the political arena. I would have preferred more humour and a lighter touch which was so evident in the first books in the series.

Anyone considering reading Joe Country (Slough House #6) (2019), who has yet to read the rest of the series, needs to forget that idea and go back to the beginning. If you're in that fortunate position then I envy you. These books only make sense as an ongoing series.

As usual, once I got my mitts on Joe Country, it was very difficult to think about anything else. It's another splendid excursion into the world of the slow horses. Regular readers will know that the sense of jeopardy is very real. Favourite characters can, and do, die.

Slough House is the dumping ground for MI5’s misfits and failures, rather than risk unfair dismissal, the hope and expectation is that the soul destroying work at Slough House will eventually result in resignation. This makes for a marvellous collection of eclectic and memorable characters. Jackson Lamb, the Slough House boss, being the most memorable of the lot. Instantly dislikeable, he wears his obnoxiousness, and disgusting personal habits, as a badge of honour. Underestimate him at your peril though. And, beneath that gruff exterior perhaps he does ultimately look out for each and every slow horse? They are all his "Joes" after all.

Joe Country follows straight on from The Drop: A Slough House Novella (Slough House #5.5) which introduced a new slow horse - Lech Wicinski.

I don't want to say anything about the plot because that might ruin the magic of the various plot twists, suffice to say it delivers, as always.

Is it a five star read? Maybe not, but the rating is as much for the series and for this particular book.

An explosive revelation at the end already has me longing for the next installment. Hurry up Mick.

5/5

Fans of the Slough House series of novels will not be disappointed by Joe Country. Mick Herron's descriptions of the environment these disgraced spies work in is always funny and thoughtful. Part of the fun is wondering how the new person is going to fit in, and who they are going to kill off this time. Jackson Lamb, the literally odious boss of these miscreants, is a brilliant creation.
In Joe Country the story starts with multiple deaths, and we must work back to see whose corpses they are. The action largely takes place in snowy Wales, and is as entertainingly violent and witty as ever. Five stars.

This latest tale in the Slough House series begins with a barn in Wales being set on fire. Two bodies are inside.
Meanwhile, in London, Britain's head of the Secret Service, Diana "Lady Di" Taverner is being her usual manipulative self - wheeling and dealing with politicians to get more funding for the "spooks" before sacking Emma Flyte from her post as "Head Dog", in charge of the security staff at Secret Service HQ. Emma sums up Diana Taverner's scheming brilliantly with the line: "You'd burn down a city to save face."
At Slough House, the Slow Horses have a new member, Lech Wicinski. The reason for his demotion is far worse than any of the "crimes" made by the building's existing rejects who carry out all the boring jobs required to root out the various threats to the nation's security.
One of them, River Cartwright, is preparing for the funeral of his grandfather, a former head of the Secret Service but that event turns into farce as he spots his father, ex CIA agent turned mercenary, Frank Harkness with whom River and his boss, Jackson Lamb, has a score to settle.
This is the 7th book in the series - there having been a novella "The Drop" which preceded it and two characters from that book feature in "Joe Country".
Another Slough House inmate, Louisa Guy, receives a call from the wife of her dead lover, Min Harper. Min's son Lucas has disappeared and his mother wants her to use her intelligence connections to find him.
Various strands of the story spin out as Louisa takes a holiday in order to track down Lucas who is somewhere in Pembrokeshire. As she heads off on her mission, Jackson Lamb is informed that Frank Harkness and 3 European mercenaries seem to be heading to the same location as Louisa Guy. Keen to dish out justice to the man responsible for the death of one of his slow horses, Lamb sends River and 2 others to find out what the mercenary squad is up to.
As they set off for Wales, winter sets in and the action switches between snowbound Pembrokeshire and London as author Mick Herron gradually draws the multiple strands of the story together.
This is not a stand alone novel as there are too many links back to previous books in the series, but the main characters are up to their usual tricks with politicians and civil servants (including the spooks) bickering and backstabbing on a daily basis. There are marvellous descriptions of London and the living entity that is Slough House. There are also delightful descriptions of the winter weather and how a single day's snowfall paralyses Britain's cities and countryside; the latter adding more problems to the dangers already being faced by River and his colleagues. Jackson Lamb is his usual caustic self while his long suffering secretary Catherine has almost reached breaking point. Throughout this latest tale, the reader can delight in the jet black humour which laces all of the Slough House stories. I love how Mick Herron can skewer Britain's high and mighty in a single sentence and along the way take sideswipes at the Brexit debacle and the machinations of politicians who only have their own interests at heart. A great addition to a wonderful series. Highly recommended.

My thanks to John Murray Press and NetGalley for a copy of this book in return for an unbiased review. (Please note that I have already bought the previous 5 and a half Slough House books, so I'm a committed fan!)